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The federal government is considering creating a training program for unemployed Canadians to boost staffing in long-term care homes, where COVID-19 has had the most tragic impact in Canada.

Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Minister Carla Qualtrough said in an interview on CTV’s Question Period on Sunday that the government is working with the Homecare Workers Associations of Canada to shorten the training period for people who could be placed in simpler positions in nursing homes. Qualtrough said the system would be similar to the national recruiting campaign created by the government to build a roster of volunteers to help track coronavirus cases and keep data about them.

As of late last week, more than four out of five deaths caused by the new illness were of patients in long-term care homes.

In Canada’s most populous province, Ontario, the Toronto Star found in an investigation that the COVID-19 situation is more dire in for-profit nursing homes than in their non-profit counterparts. Residents in for-profit homes are about twice as likely to catch the virus and die than in non-profit homes, the Star reports.

A Cargill meat plant in Quebec is closing after dozens of its workers tested positive for COVID-19. It’s the second time one of the company’s facilities in Canada has had to close because of an outbreak. An earlier series of infections affected more than 900 of 2,000 workers at an Alberta plant that is responsible for processing the most meat out of any site in the country. The Canadian Press has more details on the latest Cargill outbreak.

Data released by Statistics Canada released on Friday shows that nearly two million jobs were lost in Canada in April as the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic worsened. More than three million jobs have been lost since the beginning of near-lockdown measures put in place to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. Figures from the latest labour force survey shows that, altogether, 5.5 million Canadians – representing more than a quarter of the workforce pre-pandemic – have lost their jobs or seen their hours reduced by at least half because of COVID-19.

Also on Friday, the federal government announced the formation of a new team of business leaders that will work to determine the impacts the pandemic has had on Canadian industry. Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains will lead the group. Rachel Emmanuel wrote about its foundation.

Around the World

Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the leaders in the Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, will work from home for the next 14 days after making a “low risk” contact with a White House staffer who tested positive for the illness. (CNN)

A spokesperson for Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, says he’ll be back at the White House on Monday after his press secretary Katie Miller was diagnosed with the disease on Friday. (Bloomberg)

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the country Sunday that people can begin exercising more frequently starting on Wednesday and that anyone working in construction or manufacturing will be encouraged to return to their jobs. Schools could open as soon as June, while parts of the hospitality industry and some public places that had been closed may also be opened soon. Air travellers to the country will have to go into quarantine, except those coming from France. Johnson said he will add more details about the start to his government’s re-opening plan on Monday. (Globe and Mail)

Elsewhere in Europe, infections rose again in Germany at the end of last week, a few days after social restrictions were loosened.

Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have emerged, also discovered its first case in weeks. The total number of global cases passed four million on Sunday. (The Guardian)